I used to be afraid to trust God. And it bothered me.
I wanted to slip my hand in His and let Him lead.
I wanted to put my concerns in His capable arms
and believe He could take better care of them than I could.
I wanted to have more faith.
But I didn’t. And one day I realized why.
It’s hard to trust someone we don’t really know.
Therein was the reason for my hearts hesitancy to fully rely on God.
You see, I knew a lot about God but I didn’t really know God.
So I decided to start spending time with Him like a friend, getting to know Him.
Talking to Him with simple-sentence and conversational prayers
listening to Him through promises in His Word
depending on Him in different circumstances
relying on Him in faith as I struggled with different fears.
Over time my “knowing” and trusting God got stronger and stronger.
And my depth of dependence grew as I depended on Him and found He is dependable.
What about you? Do you ever struggle with trusting God, like really trusting Him and fully relying on Him to meet your needs like I have? One thing that has really helped me get to know God and push through my fear of dependence is remembering the names of God and giving Him a chance to show me the faithfulness of His character through the power of His names.
The truth is we can’t know God as Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, if we aren’t in need. And when we are, we can learn to trust Him as we depend on Him to meet ours needs. The more we do this, the more our trust will deepen and our relationship with Christ with be strengthened.
Our confidence in Him will grow as we live in the powerful promise of this beautiful verse: “Those who know your name trust you, O LORD, because you have never deserted those who seek your help” (Psalm 9:10). Let’s pray: Lord, I want to know You for who You really are. I desire to trust and follow You more and more each day.
Knowing God By Name – printable
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ENTER TO WIN: I Know His Name by Wendy Blight
My friend, Wendy Blight, has written a five-session Bible study about discovering power in the names of God. This study is for any woman who wants to move beyond simply knowing about God to really knowing God in a very personal way. This study will help women to:
- Realize their infinite worth as they explore the nature of the God who created and formed them.
- Live with bold assurance that their God is a personal God who sees them, hears them, and knows them by name.
- Walk confidently in knowing both who they are and Whose they are.
- Arm themselves with seven tools to pray more confidently and effectively in any situation or circumstance.
- Transform their walk with Jesus as they discover how He fulfills the Old Testament names of God.
ENTER TO WIN by sharing why you’d like to study this topic and have a copy of Wendy’s new book. Simply click SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS below. One winner will be randomly selected on Friday and notified via email.
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I would love to do this study on the names of God. I have been in ministry for several years, but personally still struggle with believing that God knows and cares about me personally. My faith has truly been tested over the past couple of years with some very deep church hurt — broken relationships and deep pain — and at times I have wondered how God could let it happen, but He has proven Himself faithful time and time again. I just have to keep walking with Him.
Love the concept of getting to know God so that I can trust Him more fully. Well illustrated by the relationship with JJ.
Interested in the names of God study and I may purchase it whether I win or not.
Thanks
I struggle with trusting just about anyone, and especially men, due to the rejection I’ve suffered at the hands of about every man that has been in my life, including my dad. I would love to win this book so that I can maybe learn how to trust God and move forward in my life with others.
I struggle with reading the Bible as I should and recently felt that maybe I could do a Bible study at home – this sounds like it would be a great one!! I am also interesting in the praying piece as I do pray but there are times when I am really now sure what to pray and it also may give me the confidence to pray out loud which I am not currently comfortable with.
Thanks so much for the opportunity!!
God works wonders all the time. I read a morning devotion that mentioned some of the names of God and their meanings and I thought to myself…I need to study up on them. Write them down and memorize them. Was actually going to google them tonight at home. Thanks for the opportunity to win this. I will be looking into getting this even if I don’t win. I can share with a friend. Have a blessed day!
I would love to know all the names of God. When you know someone’s name, you feel like you know them as a person, someone you can relate to. I have a desire to be closer to God but honestly, it’s hard to relate to Him as anyone else around me. I would love that personal, intimate connection to Him, that personal “friendship”. Knowing more about Who He Is would help me in being closer to Him.
My pastor did a study about a year ago on the names of God and I have been fascinated ever since. I feel the more I know his names, I can call on him personally, by name and draw closer. I would love to have this book and be able to delve even further into learning and studying the names of our Almighty God.
My reasons for wanting this particular Bible study are two fold. First, I teach 6-8 th grade girls in our Inner City ministry. I love this age group! They are at an age where they are starting to ask questions and develop their own faith. We talk a lot about being respectful during prayer especially but also during class time because of who God is and how we want to respond to that knowledge but I find that really they have very little knowledge about the facets of God other than Creator and Savior and I have struggled with that knowledge and how to communicate it myself. Secondly, I have been without a job for over a year now. As a single woman without any other means of support, this had been a challenging time! I’ve been trying to lean into God promises and some days I do better than others. The best part is on the days I’m leaning more on myself and therefore struggling more, it seems like I always come across a scripture or lesson that reminds me He is in control. I feel like this study will be a full meal on why I should trust God and not the tidbits of nourishment that I’m only choosing to take in right now.
I’m still a fairly new Christ follower, I accepted Christ as my savior on September 10, 2014. At first I had this hunger for Him and His word but lately I’ve been struggling big time. I still fully believe in God and all His promises and that He is in control of my life, but somehow I’m struggling making quiet time a priority. I think this book would be a great step in me getting to know Him better and get back into a close relationship with our Lord! 🙂
Thank you, Renee, for your beautiful P31 devotion today and for sharing and giving away a copy of my new book, “I Know His Name.” I’ve enjoyed reading the comments and have been blessed by the stories and desires of women’s hearts to get to know God more intimately!
Blessings,
Wendy
Thank YOU Wendy for joining us here and for sharing your heart in the comments. Also, thank you for sharing your beautiful gifts of teaching and scripture studies with us through your new beautiful Bible Study!
I am including the names of God in the praise part of my prayer time. I would love to know more about each name.
I decided to join this study because I desire to spend more time with God and be able to call Him by name. I have always thought if you wanted to know God, salvation is all that matters. If you need a scripture to help you in a time of need, you can always google it. It was not as a grew up that I discovered, we need to learn the Bible daily, arm ourselves with the word of God so when we face trials and tribulations we don’t need to rely on google but on the Holy Spirit to bring to mind and to our heart what we need at the right time. As your morning devotional said earlier today, we need to spend time with God to be able to trust him. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. As a child, my family had a frame/portrait in our home of all God’s names including the ones that are really hard to pronounce. I felt it a challenge to memorize the difficult ones just because. The one that comes to memory is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. When I saw Wendy Blight was offering a bible study class to learn these, I was excited because I get to delve into the names of God. I quickly signed up for the study, I am not a fun of facebook groups but I just joined the group this morning. What was previously just a decoration on the wall in my home, will now become a useful tool in my heart. I’m excited for this BIble class and hoping I could bless someone else if I won this book.
I find that the more I dwell on who God is the less anxiety plagues me. I also would like a good bible study to reestablish a good devotional time.
I have always known about God but I yearn to trust Him more and share WHO He is with others.
Learned a lot about the different names of God when I was younger but to me then, I only wanted to know the interpretation of His different names. I’m older now and desire to truly grasp the depth beneath those names, as part of my journey to knowing Him more and spending time with Him.
Lord, I need to know you more deeply. You have a name for every season in my life. Teach me how to live this life as you have called me to live………AMEN
I forget what different names mean, so having a study on them would be so helpful.
I am going through a dry and thirsty season and need more of God in my life. I am praying that this study will help me to understand and fully embrace God more.
I would love to know more about the names of God. I want more to learn more about him and want more of him.
Yearning to know how the names of God – how His character is meant for me personally…